This is where College sports are headed and it's not a good thing

[Cornell Lt]

NLRB certifies union to represent Dartmouth basketball players

The National Labor Relations Board has certified a union to represent Dartmouth basketball players after the deadline passed for the school to object to the election.

www.espn.com

 

[PacoSwede]

why do you think it is not a good thing?

 

[ThisJustIn]

Those "in charge" are being forced to reckon with the consequences of the game's growth, coaches' salaries, ridiculous amount of money spent on athletic facilities. The NCAA kicked the can down the road for a while, and now the chickens have come home to roost.

I mean, look what is happening to the University: Opinion: Amid UConn budget cuts, questioning athletics spending

 

[uconnfan68]

They also had more applicants than ever. Over 50k iirc.

 

[Cornell Lt]

why do you think it is not a good thing?

Because it just ensures an uneven playing field. Do you really think a University like Connecticut can afford the "salaries" for all varsity athletes ? I highly doubt it. But you can bet your bottom dollar that the SEC, BigTen can and will.

 

[Pharos]

Couple reactions. My favorite experiences of sports were playing after school with 6th-grade friends on a vacant lot. (When I read about "language games" in college, it was easy to understand). Another, about the same time in my life, was being a batboy for my favorite high school team.
Yes. The level of performance of elite athletes is amazing and wonderful to watch. The past half decade weaning myself from any pro sports viewing. UConn WBB is my last refuge. The "hack-a-Shaq" approach to overcoming more talented teams is wearing me down. What about 4 fouls and you're out? What about shooting fouls getting 3 FT instead of 2.
Rambling... over and out...

 

[visitingcock]

Get off my lawn!

Yes, it’s changing, but you and I don’t know where it’s headed. No court has ruled on the NLRB ‘s decision. When that starts being heard by Southern courts, you will start swing big dibergency in opinion on the issues with “ right to work” judges.

 

[oldude]

This is not the first effort to unionize college athletes. A decade ago Northwestern football attempted to do so before the effort fell apart. As for Dartmouth, they are a non-athletic scholarship, Ivy League program, who finished last in the Ancient 8, with a record of 6-21, hardly a bellwether for efforts to unionize D1 athletes. This will go nowhere.

 

[maple]

I mean, look what is happening to the University: Opinion: Amid UConn budget cuts, questioning athletics spending

Articles like this always make me roll my eyes. My parents have a lot to complain about regarding taxes in CT and how they are spent (and trust me, I hear their complaints often) … except for when it comes to paying UConn coaches. They absolutely agree with the salaries of UConn coaches.

There’s a lot of other salaries I would be cutting before I’d be cutting the salaries of Hurley, Geno, and Mora.

 

[Rowdy831]

Most teams can't afford to pay every athlete and some can't afford what they already are doing. If you want to revenue share within a sport that is one thing but the current format where there are no controls in place is bound to cause more harm than good.

 

[Sifaka]

Because it just ensures an uneven playing field. Do you really think a University like Connecticut can afford the "salaries" for all varsity athletes ? I highly doubt it. But you can bet your bottom dollar that the SEC, BigTen can and will.

Salaries? That is jumping to a conclusion, The regional NLRB official who deemed the Dartmouth players to be employees did so not on the basis of any salary, but on other things he deemed to be—erroneously in my opinion— “compensation”.

I was a varsity athlete at Dartmouth, and was grateful for the recreational opportunity. I never thought of myself as an employee. But that was over a half century ago, and I accept change even when I disagree with it.

This will be litigated to death for years, but in the meantime I have at least one serious concern: athletes in the U.S. on student visas. By law they cannot be employed, or they loose their visa and must leave the country. If a team votes to unionize, it will take some very clever legal maneuvering to find a way for foreign players outside of right to work states to play without being classed as employees



. Mine has 1969, but I couldn't find a photo with that year.

 

[rugbymate]

I suspect Dartmouth would eliminate basketball before they paid their basketball players.

 

[Sifaka]

There is a good write up from a legal periodical here:

Dartmouth Players’ Vote Poised to Spark Ivy League Union Wave

The Dartmouth College men’s basketball team’s historic vote to unionize this week has the potential to be a tipping point in college athletics after years of upheaval over players’ pay and working conditions.

news.bloomberglaw.com

Foreign players’ issues:

College Athletes’ Status as Employees Puts Student Visas at Risk

Growing momentum toward classification of college athletes as employees of their schools is raising major questions about international students’ continued visa eligibility.

news.bloomberglaw.com

 

[XStorrsion]

Haven't all the unionizing efforts in the NCAA to date focused on only Private Universities? Hard to imagine it would extend very far into public universities, especially now that NIL exists.

 

[topogigio]

NIL, and unionization will prove to be the end to major college sports as we know it, particularly football and basketball. It simply will not be sustainable. Minor league professional sports leagues and training programs for 17-20 years olds will fill the niche, and colleges and universities will return to their original purpose - academics! I hope I am still alive to see if my prophecy comes to fruition.

 

[Dogdude]

I suspect Dartmouth would eliminate basketball before they paid their basketball players.

Exactly. Dartmouth needs no recognition or otherwise from sports. It's an expense. That's it.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Get off my lawn!

Yes, it’s changing, but you and I don’t know where it’s headed. No court has ruled on the NLRB ‘s decision. When that starts being heard by Southern courts, you will start swing big dibergency in opinion on the issues with “ right to work” judges.

Perfect example of why I'm leaving the south as soon as I retire.

 

[Bone Dog]

Athletic departments may not be separable from the broader unionization movements happening at schools across the country. For better or worse, this is coming for all undergraduates who receive any sort of work or work-study compensation. Maybe all these efforts will fail (as I suspect) but the next several years will see lots of this sort of thing.

 

[omshanti]

Articles like this always make me roll my eyes. My parents have a lot to complain about regarding taxes in CT and how they are spent (and trust me, I hear their complaints often) … except for when it comes to paying UConn coaches. They absolutely agree with the salaries of UConn coaches.

There’s a lot of other salaries I would be cutting before I’d be cutting the salaries of Hurley, Geno, and Mora.

As a CT resident I wouldn’t mind if Mora’s salary was cut. UConn is the basketball capital of the county. The football program doesn’t warrant his high salary. Stick with the winners, basketball and other sports.How many years will CT continue to try to become a football powerhouse?

 

[CTBballfan243]

As a CT resident I wouldn’t mind if Mora’s salary was cut. UConn is the basketball capital of the county. The football program doesn’t warrant his high salary. Stick with the winners, basketball and other sports.How many years will CT continue to try to become a football powerhouse?

What needs to happen is the power conferences (SEC, B1G, B12, ACC) with all the money can afford the NIL and to pay coaches need to split from the rest of the pack for all sports. Have separate national championships tournaments In all sports. That way the teams in conferences that don’t make the big money and don’t have NIL $$, and can’t pay their coaches will be on a level playing field. The Gap between the haves and have nots is only going to get bigger.

 

[Dogdude]

This will end up being a big nothing. The power conferences are that because of football. Every other sport is a money loser, save for a very few select teams in basketball. And in general academia overall, the only departments that contribute to the bottom line are the sciences, and that's only if your bio researchers come up with a lot of potentially marketable advances. With colleges hurting financially right now as attendance and applications decrease to a number of the mid-level schools, sports are an easy cut. It's not necessary to drop them, but simply reduce them to club status. In this time where university heads are under all sorts of political pressure from all sides, and especially the large donor pool, cutting an insignificant team or two is an easy budget fix. If Dartmouth were to cut basketball because of the union vote, university presidents around the country will be jumping for joy as a precedent is set.

 

[Pharos]

In the first year of our marriage, we were traveling in Europe. After a couple of days in Dublin we were restless, went to the train station determined to take a train "anywhere." Boarded the train, and on a Sunday morning it was full of rowdy, drunken, singing, dancing crazy people. So we asked, "What going on?" They were all headed to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship game. We became 2 of the 64,155 in attendance. Have you ever seen a hurling match? In the game we watched no one's nose was broken and ACLs remained intact.

 

[Bone Dog]

In the first year of our marriage, we were traveling in Europe. After a couple of days in Dublin we were restless, went to the train station determined to take a train "anywhere." Boarded the train, and on a Sunday morning it was full of rowdy, drunken, singing, dancing crazy people. So we asked, "What going on?" They were all headed to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship game. We became 2 of the 64,155 in attendance. Have you ever seen a hurling match? In the game we watched no one's nose was broken and ACLs remained intact.

I love hurling! That’s the one with the big spoon shaped stick? I’ve seen a few matches on tv.

 

[Redux]

One of my recurring nightmares is that NCAA basketball officials become unionized AND Angel Hernandez becomes an NCAA women's basketball official.

Then I wake up and realize that for all practical purposes that seems already to have happened.

 

[Sifaka]

Just whenyou thought it was all simple and decided…
(queue Jaws theme )

Here are some new complications you might not have considered, such as who the employer might be. Is it the school, just the school, or is employer status shared by the conference and even the NCAA?

Dartmouth Union Vote Sparks New Student Athlete Bargaining Ideas

The increasing possibility that college athletes will be considered employees in the near future is threatening the traditional amateur model as lawyers and other observers struggle to envision what the new landscape will look like.

news.bloomberglaw.com

More complications explained here: Dartmouth Refuses to Bargain With Unionized Basketball Team (1)